Holy hangover Bat Girl—Project Pabst has done it again! Excuse us while we come down from one of Portland’s best music weekends in a long time. Real-deal punk, new and old, dominated day one, while perfect indie chill held sway over Sunday. Check out our day one round-up here. We’d love to drop a day two Project Pabst round-up on all y’all, but it’s on to the next one!
Stay tuned for more festival coverage of Pickathon, Lonely God Fest, Best Day Ever, and more!
Alvilda / La Isla Electronica / Chatterbox / Cheex
For fans of the 5.6.7.8’s, Puerta Negra, Parquet Courts
Not speaking French is a bummer, not speaking French after discovering Alvilda est catastrophique! Even without speaking the language of love, the all femme Parisian punk band are clearly well fed on a steady diet of ’60s girl groups, blissed-out yé-yé, and femme punk icons, like Lizzy Mercier Descloux and Saada Bonaire. ¡Not speaking Spanish is a bummer, not speaking Spanish after discovering La Isla Electronica (LIE) es catastrófica! Even without speaking the language of passion, the femme fronted Portland punk band is clearly well fed on a steady diet of ’80s darkwave, blissed-out industrial, and femme punk icons, like Polikarpa y sus viciosas and Las Ultrasónicas. Portland power-pop punks Chatterbox bring the heat early in the lineup, with this multi-culti rock & roll mishmash mosh pit also serving as the first show ever for the newly formed Cheex. (Blackwater, 8 pm, more info here, 21+)
Related: Check out Spanish-speaking socialist baddie Cameron Crowell’s review of La Isla Electronica’s ripper new self-titled EP.
Thursday, July 31
Portland Mercury 25th Anniversary Party ft. Pure Bathing Culture, Nonbinary Girlfriend, Karma Rivera
For fans of free alt. newspapers, community building, Portland music past/present/future
Memories fade; finding out you’re no longer in Destiny’s Child because you didn’t appear in the music video for “Say My Name” is forever. A few months after LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson were booted from Destiny’s Child in February 2000, the Portland Mercury was founded. Coincidence…? I think not! In celebration of this massive milestone, the Mercury has booked the show of the quarter-century, with our dreamy friends Pure Bathing Culture, our radical friends Nonbinary Girlfriend, and our baddie friend Karma Rivera all pulling up to Polaris Hall July 31 to help us party! This one’s for the community and it's free/open to the public. It sold out in less than 24 hours, but if you didn’t snag tickets, you still have options: Rock up to the venue around 8 pm to see if any tickets are available, sneak in, pressure someone at the Mercury or one of the performers to get you in, or join us at the afterparty hosted by Dream House! The after pops off from 11 pm, going deep into the night with DJ Champagne Jam on the ones and twos. (Polaris Hall, 6 pm, more info here, 21+)
Related: Read the party announcement here.
LSDXOXO / Emoji Heap
For fans of Only Fire, Safety Trance, Cobrah
“I’m a sick bitch / And I like freak sex / If you wanna test the limits of my gag reflex / If you wanna make it work / You gotta go berserk / You gotta make it hurt / If you wanna make it squirt” - LSDXOXO (Star Theater, 8:30 pm, more info here, 18+)
Thursday, July 31—Sunday, August 3
Pickathon
For fans of camping festivals, all ages scenes, magic
Tucked back into the woods at Pendarvis Farm in Happy Valley, Oregon, I frequently hear Pickathon described as magical, immersive, and oh so sweet. The lineup this year is pretty nail-on-the-head Portland with bigger names including local heroes Portugal. The Man and the once Portland-based dreamer Haley Heynderickx. One thing Pickathon’s especially good at is booking local talent complementary of the headliners—some of this year's favorite smaller acts include Jenny Don’t & the Spurs, Dougie Poole, and J.R.C.G. If there’s a lineup conflict where two bands you’re dying to see are playing at the same time, don’t worry: Every act plays twice! I would be remiss not to mention the person I was most looking forward to this year has now split the scene forever: Michael Hurley passed away in April and is sorely missed the world over. Beyond the fun lineup, Pickathon is full of art, a wildly diverse selection of food, and truly just a good time. (Pendarvis Farm, more info here, all ages)
Saturday, August 2
Ragana / Couch Slut / Sunrot
For fans of Wolves in the Throne Room, Dead Pioneers, Thou
In recent years, the Olympia-based Indigi-queers Ragana have played some crushing opening slots for the likes of Portraits of Past, Mount Eerie, and Grouper. The duo share sonic similarities to regional bands hoisting the Cascadian black metal banner, though Ragana are drawing from something deeper, more profoundly of the earth than their bioregional siblings—you feel it deeply in the gasping screeches for Indigenous sovereignty and healing. Couch Slut via their Bandcamp: “Putrid, drug-fueled gutter rock from the filthy streets of NYC. NSFW,” and that’s on that. New Jersey’s Sunrot are along for the ride, leaving maximalist doom anthems in their wake. (Mississippi Studios, 9 pm, more info here, 21+)
Sunday, August 3
Alien Boy / Dusk / Supercrush / Amusement
For fans of Everyone Asked About You, Gram Parsons, Wipers
Answering Portland’s pop-punk prayers, Alien Boy's new album You Wanna Fade? is a blissed-out summer heartache where fuzzy memories collide with desired future frameworks. Existence is expansive, queerness is expansive, Alien Boy is expansive. Wisconsin’s Dusk are on tour touting their brand of cheeky alt-country, with Seattle’s Supercrush helping to fill the gap. More punk than pop, Portland’s Amusement go on first, kicking off this night of soft moshing. (Show Bar, 9 pm, more info here, 21+)
Related: Fade deeper with our review of Alien Boy's new album You Wanna Fade?
Jessica Pratt / Helen
For fans of Janis Ian, Joanna Newsom, The Concretes
One of the most captivating releases of 2024, Jessica Pratt’s Here in the Pitch delicately showcases the artist’s vocals and minimalist guitar work—both of which are heavily informed by the late '60s and '70s femmes of Laurel Canyon. Curious, soft, and determined are the album’s mostly acoustic compositions, perfectly soundtracking Portland’s mid-summer day dreaming. Up to bat before Pratt are Portland’s dreamy shoegazers Helen, a band including Liz Harris of Grouper, and Jed Bindeman of Little Axe Records and Freedom To Spend. (Revolution Hall, 8 pm, more info here, all ages)
Blood Incantation / Krallice
For fans of Dragged Into Sunlight, Wolves in the Throne Room, Botanist
2019’s Hidden History of the Human Race is the album that launched Blood Incantation into the upper stratosphere of metal, a distinguished seat at the table they’ve occupied since. Intensely technical guitars, unrelenting double kick drum, and low register growls collide in a cinematic outpouring of alien world-building unlike anything our ears have bled to until this point in evolution. Longtime champions of atmospheric black metal Krallice rip our third eyes open before the blood incantation begins. (Roseland Theater, 8 pm, more info here, all ages)
Also very worth it…
John Wiese / Daniel Menche / Poison Apple of the Inner Eye / Carousel / Quivering Lip at High Water Mark - July 31, more info here
Bad Tuner & Gilligan Moss at Holocene - July 31, more info here
Chlorine / Milk Krayt / Hardpill / Midnight Morning at Swan Dive - July 31, more info here
Jousting / Screenshot / Cherry Batter / Action Roadster at Leave Community - Aug 1, more info here
Diamond Life, Sade at Mono Space - July 31 - Aug 1, more info here
Kill Michael / Machine Country / A Fish in the River at Lollipop Shoppe - July 31, more info here
Dougie Poole / Nicole Lawrence / Austin Leonard Jones at Showdown Saloon - July 31, more info here
Drouth / Aerial Ruin / Lividus at The Six - Aug 1, more info here
IX of Swords / House of Warmth / Clarity at Mission Theater - Aug 2, more info here
NW Perseverance vol. 1 at High Limit Room - Aug 2, more info here
Steve Von Till / Mike Scheidt at Mississippi Studios - Aug 3, more info here
Portland Music News:
Pro-Palestine protestors interrupted the concert of Regina Spektor over the weekend. Read what Mercury news reporter Taylor Griggs found out about the confrontation here.
